


what your eyes can't see

by desastrista



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Flashbacks, Fluff, Halloween, Humor, M/M, Paranormal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-10-27
Packaged: 2019-08-08 13:58:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16430741
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/desastrista/pseuds/desastrista
Summary: Keith doesn't believe in ghosts until he has to.Written for patchwork_pandas as part of 2018 Halloween Sheith Exchange.





	what your eyes can't see

**Author's Note:**

  * For [patchwork_panda](https://archiveofourown.org/users/patchwork_panda/gifts).



> This was actually written for the request "paranormal AU", because I misread that as "paranormal themes" (and didn't realize until I went to post and double-checked the request, oops). I hope you still like it, @patchwork_pandas, even if it is different from what you requested! 
> 
> (Kids, always double check your fic event prompts.)
> 
> Thank you to the mod for organizing this event.

When Keith was ten, the orphanage arranged a trip to a haunted house. No doubt someone on the staff thought it was a good idea. Probably it was an act of charity -- oh, won't someone think of those poor orphans this Halloween -- and so Keith had hated the plan the minute he heard it. 

A lot of the other kids were really excited to go, though. There were all kinds of rumors flying about the house really being haunted or how some kid had disappeared there after wandering away from the group. Keith found the whole thing ridiculous. Ghosts weren't real. The dead didn't come back to visit, or his dad would have come back to see him by now. 

Unfortunately for him, the orphanage staff didn't much care for his hard-nosed skepticism, and he was forced to go along to this haunted house with the other kids. He marched through room after room with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face. Occasionally a clown, or an axe murderer, or an axe-murdering clown would jump out to try and scare the group and Keith would stare them down with an expression of utter disdain.

He finally reached his limit when they got to a section of the house that was decorated like an old-timey mansion. As the kids walked down the hallways, a woman in shimmering white stepped out from behind a grandfather clock. 

“Be gone from my house!” she intoned solemnly, pointing at the group. Behind Keith, a few kids screamed in surprise. He looked over her once and then took a step forward.

It turned out that even apparitions from beyond the grave don't take well to a quick kick to the shins. 

“Ow,” the ghost grabbed at her injured leg, all stateliness gone and replaced instead with surprise and anger. “Kid, what is your problem?” 

Keith didn't get to see the rest of the haunted house, as he was shortly escorted out by some other employees. It was effectively the end of his Halloween for that year. 

_Good riddance_ was all Keith thought about the matter. 

 

 

Halloween snuck up on him in the year he spent living back in his old house. It was easy to lose track of time alone in the desert, particularly without the rigid discipline of the Garrison to demarcate days and weeks. There was only the heat, the sand, and the dull ache of losing Shiro, the one person who had ever believed in him. 

Keith had thrown himself into finding the strange source of energy in the desert, hoping it might give him answers at a time when he desperately needed them. He wasn't sure how exactly, and there were times he wondered if this was what it was like to lose your mind. But still he kept searching.

The TV in the cabin helped. The desert was quiet, brutally quiet, and as much as Keith liked not being disturbed eventually even he reached his limit. So at night he got into the habit of turning on the television, letting the room fill with inconsequential chatter, and continuing his work.

One evening, he stayed up too late puzzling over his latest Geiger counter readings and ended up falling asleep at his desk. He woke up to a sharp scream and the sound of breaking glass.

“Huh?” Keith turned around, blinking back sleep and looking around, but he was alone in the cabin and the only glass nearby were the window panes -- all of which were perfectly intact.

He saw the faint flicker of the screen out of the corner of his eyes. The TV was still on, playing some ancient black and white movie. As Keith watched, the woman on screen screamed. It was the same sound that had woken him up. The source of her terror appeared to be a ghost, but Keith himself was more frightened by just how bad the special effects he was watching were.

“I can't believe my eyes!” The woman gasped. “This is impossible! This can't be happening!”

Whatever else she was going to say was cut off as Keith reached for the remote and turned off the TV.

“Stupid Halloween specials,” he muttered under his breath. Who would be scared by that nonsense?

But as he made to stand to get ready for bed, his gaze lingered on the Geiger counter readings he had been pouring over. 

It wasn't a pleasant thought, but believing in something you couldn't see, couldn't explain, and didn't seem like it should be possible didn't strike Keith as such a silly idea anymore.

 

 

Out of the remaining paladins, Lance was the best at keeping track of the date on Earth and one day he announced that Halloween was coming up and they needed to celebrate.

“That sounds lovely,” Allura smiled once Lance explained to the Alteans just what the holiday entailed. “It's important to keep up your Earth customs, including the ritualistic fear of children.”

“Uh, I'm not sure that's quite what Lance meant,” Hunk replied.

Pidge shook her head. “No, I think Allura has the right idea.”

The other paladins had started to laugh, but Keith frowned. “It doesn't feel right to celebrate with Shiro gone.” 

The mood in the room instantly sobered. “I know how difficult this is, Keith, for you and for all of us,” Coran started. “But it's been months --” 

“And I'm sure Shiro wouldn't want you to stop living your life in his absence. He would want you to celebrate,” Allura finished. 

Keith had nothing to say to that. The conversation turned back to the party, talking about how they would decorate the Castle and what they would cook. Soon everyone was smiling and laughing again. Keith's heart was too heavy to join in. After a few minutes, he excused himself. No one tried to stop him.

Without a clear destination his feet traced a trail back to the Black Lion. He climbed inside with a half-baked notion of going to fly patrol or maybe doing some maintenance in the cockpit, but instead once he was inside he just sat in the chair and stared up at the ceiling. 

The Black Lion still did not feel like his lion, not really, but it still felt safe somehow. Keith had never told anyone that, because he couldn't even explain it to himself. But as he closed his eyes and breathed in the scent of the cockpit, he felt his muscles start to lose the tension they had been carrying. 

“Keith.” 

Keith's eyes flew open. That was Shiro's voice. He knew it. It was faint and distorted somehow, like a call carried by a failing connection. But still Keith had heard it. 

He looked around the cockpit. It was empty, as he knew it would be. Shiro wasn't here. Shiro had been gone a long time. But somehow his presence lingered.

 _Like a ghost,_ Keith's mind supplied. 

The part of Keith that was still the orphan boy who kicked a haunted house employee in the shins to make a point balked at the comparison. Ghosts weren't real. Not like Shiro was real. 

But Keith was older now and had seen so many impossible things. He found himself smiling. Maybe Shiro was a ghost. Maybe there was some other fantastical alien technology or magic that could explain what had happened after the fight with Zarkon. It didn't matter. Whatever the explanation, Keith was going to find Shiro and he was going to bring him home.

 

 

It was the night of Halloween. Earth, the universe, and all possible universes had been saved from the Galra. And tonight Keith wanted nothing more than to cuddle with his wolf and Shiro and watch a dumb movie. 

“This one is supposed to be really scary,” Shiro said excitedly, in reference to a movie with a derelict mansion on the poster. “It's supposed to be based on a true story about a haunted house.”

Keith just yawned. “I think I've had enough ghost stories lately. Let's watch something else.”

They passed the night away curled up together under a blanket, watching cartoons.


End file.
